Yes, I found it VERY confusing, especially since most of the movie is one big fat red herring. It IS a slick production, well acted, but I'd guess 95% of what happens is misdirection. One thing that could help in spotting the flashbacks is the presence of John Hurt. His character dies early in the action; no death scene, just a casual mention by one of the other characters that "Control" was dead. So from that point on, every time you see Hurt, you're watching a flashback. Sometimes he doesn't do anything other than sit at a table, so don't blink. Unfortunately, he can't be in every flashback, but he is in most of them.

Not a word about Meryl Streep's stunning performance in The Iron Lady? There were things the movie skipped over I would have liked to see, and I could have done with less of the nostalgia parts, but Streep was absolutely perfect. It's especially remarkable considering her own politics are just the opposite of Margaret Thatcher's.

Andrew, didn't you say you were NOT going to see the movie? A pity, because I'd like to know how accurate it was. In the film, Thatcher just sort of turned into a dragon overnight, and I couldn't buy that. It had to be a long time building, but we weren't shown that happening.

Rita, life is too short! I can think of one or two things that Mrs T did that were OK, but I really don't want to re-live her reign, Streep notwithstanding.

Did I once mention hereabouts that I met a Leeds University colleague on one of the mornings after one of her election victories, much of which I'd seen on TV, and I said to him "The only thing worse than waking up and finding out that Mrs Thatcher is still Prime Minister is waking up with a hangover and finding out that she's still Prime Minister".

Ha, Andrew, we kind of picked up on that. But Rita put her finger on one of the weak spots of the movie. For most of the film Thatcher is shown as charismatic and sympathetic, and then without any preparation she turns into an autocratic monster. There's one particularly painful scene, in a meeting with her ministers, in which she utterly humiliates a long-time supporter, Geoffrey Howe (beautifully played by Anthony Head). Even worse, she doesn't even notice he is humiliated, nor is she aware of the shocked silence of her other ministers. Totally wrapped up in herself. A good scene, but out of key with anything that preceded it.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is on its second run and playing to sizable audiences. If you haven't seen it, it's well worth a look. It's funny and whimsical and occasionally serious (but not too often) -- altogether a very pleasant two hours.

I got to the theater early, so I sat on a bench outside to wait for the friend I was meeting there. The parked car nearest the bench was a shiny black pick-up truck -- with a big Pittsburgh Steelers logo on the door. It struck me as ironically appropriate that the truck should be in a Disabled Parking spot.

Snow White and the Huntsman is another one of those movies that leave you amazed at what they can do with F/X now. It's a feast for the eyes, simply beautiful. Charlize Theron is a wonderful evil queen in a dark, twisty version of the story. This is the second dark telling of the Snow White story I've seen. Showtime did one several years ago with Sigourney Weaver as the queen with quite a different take on the story. I liked both of them.

It was fun watching Bob Hoskins as one of the dwarfs. But I don't understand how Snow White could have light brown hair as a child and coal-black hair as an adult, especially in a movie that pays such careful attention to detail.